Bad Girls Don't (32 page)

Had he been a better man, he’d have told Skye a key truth tonight—that the reason her daughter freaked him out was because Annie had been four months pregnant when she’d died in that accident five years ago. Which meant that Toni was about the age their child would have been had Annie lived and given birth.

But he never talked about that with anyone.
Ever.
Because saying the words out loud might make him crumble.

Crumbling, like failure, was not an option.

Nathan never thought it would still be this gut-wrenching so many years later. That smacked of weakness, to his way of thinking. He should have recovered by now. Sister Mary told him once that he couldn’t recover by jamming his emotions into a dark pit and refusing to acknowledge them. They just festered there without ever healing.

Well, hell. Tough shit. He’d never been a touchy-feely kind of guy. That’s why the Marine Corps had appealed to him so much. The few, the proud, the Marines. The Corps values of honor, courage, and commitment matched the values he’d been taught from childhood.

The Marine Corps saying—Sweat dries, blood clots, bones heal. Suck it up, Marine!—was a creed Nathan followed. It had served him well up to this point, allowing him to get up every morning and keep going. Never give up, never give in.

As for his personal life . . . well, he hadn’t had much of one until Skye had come belly dancing into his world. Well, she might be able to belly dance her way into his bed, but no way was she belly dancing her way into his heart. That door was permanently closed.

Rehashing the past wasn’t his thing. He wasn’t sure what was wrong with him tonight, but he knew that, somehow, it was all Skye’s fault that he felt this way.

A sudden noise from the bedroom had him up and moving swiftly down the hallway. The door to Skye’s room was open. Pale moonlight filtered through the sheer curtains. He really should talk to her about security issues, including the need for drapes that prevented anyone from seeing inside.

She’d kicked off the covers and was turning restlessly, obviously dreaming. Looking down at her, he was struck by how different she looked, and not just because her short hair was sticking up at odd angles. She looked . . . vulnerable.

Maybe he wasn’t the only one adept at building walls.

She could look so tough that he was surprised by how innocent she appeared right now, the kitten curled up on the blanket next to her.

He didn’t mean to sit on the bed and watch her, but he did. He didn’t mean to tuck the sheet around her when she snuggled next to him in her sleep, but he did. He didn’t mean to fall asleep there . . . but he did.

Skye was dreaming about Nathan again. She knew it was a dream because he wasn’t being bossy. Instead, he was sweet and comforting, his body spooned against hers.

Her eyelids fluttered open.
There was a man in her bed. Mmm, nice.

Her eyelids fluttered closed.

Wait a second. She sat up and wiped the sleep from her eyes.
Nathan was in her bed
. Sleeping on top of the covers.

Which made it highly unlikely that they’d somehow done the deed in their sleep.

Murmuring her name, Nathan tugged her back down into his arms. Even asleep, the guy was trying to tell her what to do. Not that she minded tremendously right at this particular moment.

She couldn’t get back to sleep. Not when she’d seen how wicked awesome he looked wearing low-slung pajama bottoms and nothing else. Lying with her back against his chest prevented her from getting a really good look at him. But his arms were wrapped around her, so she could study those for a moment. And his hands. He had nice hands, for a bossy guy.

His fingernails were neatly clipped but not buffed. This was no metrosexual male into the latest Armani suits and newest-model Infiniti. These were the callused hands of a worker. A man who knew how to use tools. And a gun.

That last one might be a turn-on for some women. She’d heard the talk around town, that women had chased after Nathan because he was a cop, and that he’d ignored them.

Probably because he still loved his wife. His dead wife. The perfect one who was nothing like Skye.

So what was Nathan doing in her bed, then?

She suddenly wanted to boot him out.

Then he nuzzled her neck.

What kind of wimp was she to go all weak because he . . . oh, that was more than nuzzling. That was his hand slipping under her pajama top and cupping her bare breast.

Did he even know who he was fondling? Did he think he was in bed with his wife? Was he dreaming of her while he was touching Skye?

Infuriated by the possibility, she jabbed her elbow into his stomach.

That got a reaction from the horny beast. “Ooof! What’d you do that for?” he demanded with typical male outrage.

“I want your eyes open when you touch me! I want you to be damn sure it’s me you’re touching!”

“Huh?” He blinked and gave her that men-are-from-Mars-women-are-from-another-galaxy-entirely look.

“Mommy, we’re here!” Toni shrieked from the living room.

Nathan leapt out of the bed, almost falling on his face when his feet got tangled in the covers.

“Smooth move,” she said sarcastically.

He tugged at his pajama bottoms, covering up his outie navel right before Toni burst into Skye’s bedroom. “Angel and me came to visit with you.” She bounced onto the bed and launched herself at Skye. “I missed you and Gravity.”

“We missed you, too, lovebug.”

“Why is Mr. Kitten-Book Man here? Did he bring me another book?”

“His name is Nathan. And no, he didn’t bring you another book.”

“Why not?”

“You avaricious little squirt.” Skye blew a raspberry on Toni’s arm.

“What’s av-icious mean?”

“Avaricious means you expect presents all the time.”

“Not all the time. Just
most
of the time.” Toni looked around. “Where’s Gravity?”

“I think she flew under the bed when you came roaring in here.”

“I didn’t come roaring in. This is a roar.” Toni imitated a lion before modestly adding, “I did that good, didn’t I?”

“Where’s your tutu?” Skye asked, noticing for the first time that her daughter was wearing a regular short set, even if the top and bottom didn’t match.

“I don’t have to wear it all the time, Mommy,” Toni solemnly informed her.

“Right.”

Toni’s attention returned to Nathan, who stood frozen, with a certain deer-in-the-headlights look about him. “So, if you’re not here to give me a book, how come you’re in my mommy’s bedroom?”

“Gravity,” Skye said. “He came to see Gravity.”

“Where’s his clothes?” Toni asked.

“In the living room with his sleeping bag.”

Toni bounced up and down on the mattress. “Are we going camping?” Without waiting for an answer, she scooted off the bed and grabbed Nathan by the hand. “Come with me,” she imperiously ordered him.

To give him credit, Nathan went with Toni without a word of protest. The look on his face was something else, though. Part panic, part resignation.

“Hi, Nathan,” Angel said calmly as she passed them in the hallway, on her way into the bedroom to give Skye a plateful of muffins. “These turned out really good. Blueberry-wheat-bran. Try one.”

Angel had never been one to judge Skye, so the fact that she’d had a man in her bedroom didn’t faze her at all. “What are you doing here?” Skye said.

“Toni missed you. She insisted on coming over to see you. I figured it would be safe, with Nathan staying here and all.”

Skye could hear the excited murmuring of Toni’s voice even if she couldn’t hear the words themselves. Nathan didn’t seem to be talking much. No surprise there.

But she
was
surprised to find them, heads together in mutual concentration, on the floor in Toni’s kitty bedroom a few minutes later. Toni knew the story of
Kitten’s First Full Moon
well enough that she could tell it to Nathan as she pointed to the illustrations on each page.

And since she was Skye’s child, she added a few elements of her own. “This is the moon. It lives in the sky. It’s a full moon. See how it’s all big and round? You can smile, you know,” she told Nathan, patting his cheek with her hand. “I don’t mind.”

He closed his eyes as if he were in pain.

“Uh-oh. That’s how I look when I got to go poo and it won’t come out,” Toni confided with another pat to his cheek.

Nathan’s eyes flew open, and he suddenly started laughing. He laughed so hard he ended up in a pile on the floor with Toni perched on his bare chest, tickling him.

“Do it again!” she yelled. “Laugh some more and make me bounce up and down.”

He laughed so hard, tears poured from his eyes.

Toni scrambled off his chest to stare down at him in concern. “Why are you crying? Did you pee in your pants?”

That started another round of his laughter before, gasping for breath, Nathan sat up and tried to regain his composure. He leaned forward and rested his forehead on his bent knees while inhaling gulps of air.

“I’m better now.” He sat up straight and looked at Skye. The earlier look of panic and pain was gone. She glimpsed the warmth in his eyes.

The door to his soul had opened.

Skye smiled. “Yeah,” she said softly. “I think you
will
be better now.”

 

 

The next afternoon, Skye sat on the cream-colored couch in Julia’s picture-perfect living room and studied the rest of her family. Four generations of Wright women in one room. A regular estrogen-fest.

Angel was crocheting beside her on the couch, while Toni and Julia were playing with Ta the Tiger on the floor. On Skye’s way in earlier, Julia had pulled her aside and reminded her not to say anything to anyone about the pregnancy, because she hadn’t told Luke yet. Then she’d hugged Skye, who still found it weird but kind of neat that she and her sister had bonded by sharing secrets while sitting on the hood of Skye’s car and staring up at the night sky.

And there was Violet, the family matriarch, regally enthroned in a high-back armchair. She might look like Betty White, but she often acted like Miss Piggy, with her diva-like sense of entitlement. Yet there were some signs that Violet was transforming.

“You know, in the beginning I wasn’t sure how I felt about having a badass for a granddaughter,” she suddenly announced.

“Mom!” Angel protested.

“You must be talking about me,” Julia noted dryly, which made Skye crack up.

“What? I got that right, didn’t I? That’s the proper term, isn’t it?”

“Sure is,” Skye agreed.

“Who’s a badass?” Toni demanded.

Violet pressed her hand to her mouth. “I forgot that little pitchers have big ears,” she said sheepishly.

“Who has a bad ass and big ears?” Toni insisted.

“Ta the Tiger,” Angel replied.

“Ta’s ears aren’t big,” Toni protested.

Angel swiftly changed the subject. “Who’s ready for some sweet-potato muffins with candied ginger?”

Toni jumped to her feet. “I want candy.”

Angel noted the adults’ lack of similar enthusiasm. “These came out much better than my squash cookies,” she assured her daughters and mother.

“That’s not a real high bar you’re setting there,” Julia noted.

“My squash cookies are famous,” Angel protested.

“Infamous,” Julia said.

Skye had heard enough about the cookies. “Hey, Julia, before I forget, have you ever heard of someone named Roxy Rothafel? There’s a quote from him above the entrance to the Tivoli. I’ve been meaning to Google him, but since you’re a librarian and know everything, I thought you might have heard of him.”

“I know who he is,” Violet said. “Samuel Lionel Rothafel. He’s the genius behind the design concept for the interior of Radio City Music Hall. Don’t look so surprised—I’m not dumb. I know how to read.”

“She asked me to get her a bunch of books from the library on movie theater history earlier today,” Julia explained.

“Figured I might as well know what you’re doing there at the Tivoli.” Violet’s look was a clear reminder that she’d seen what Skye and Nathan had been doing onstage that day.

“Yeah, Violet has seen firsthand the kind of activities we’re engaged in at the Tivoli,” Skye said with a challenging look in return.

“Are you sure that sheriff can protect you from harm?”

Skye was surprised to see genuine concern in Violet’s eyes. So surprised, she momentarily didn’t know what to say.

“Nathan is a good man,” Angel said. “All the signs say so.”

“You’re not talking about those little rocks again, are you?” Violet pooh-poohed the idea with a sour-lemon face.

“They’re runes.”

“Runes, prunes—I don’t care what you call them. I need more realistic assurances that Skye will be safe.”

“Nathan will make sure of it,” Julia said. “He’s a professional. He knows what he’s doing.”

Skye wondered if Nathan knew what he was doing to
her.
Cuddling in bed with her and then laughing with her daughter—the devious man was making her fall for him. So, okay, maybe she’d already fallen for him and was now up to her armpits in deep shit. Up to her armpits in love. She couldn’t even think about it.

Luckily, Violet distracted her. “I’ve got a bit of good news to share,” she said.

“You’re going back to Bakersfield?” Julia socked Skye’s arm and sent her a warning look. “What?”

“I don’t know when I’m going back,” Violet said.

“I’ve been looking into getting my own place,” Angel abruptly announced. “Now that Julia and Luke are back, I mean. I’d like someplace out in the country where the llamas and I can have space to tread lightly on the Earth.”

“What about Tyler?” Skye asked. “Only you and the llamas will be going to your new place?”